The bellicon® helps to regenerate the pelvic floor

Gisela Schirmer, physiotherapist and pelvic floor specialist

"By regularly swinging on the flexible bellicon® mini trampoline, the
blood circulation and ability to react in the pelvic floor area are
improved; the cells are better nourished and sustain the task not to
rest and drop!!

Many woman, and not only those with slight pelvic floor
problems but also those who according to their doctor’s diagnosis need
an operation, have recovered by training on the bellicon. The same thing
is applicable here: use the muscles, boost your cells or forget it! Or
as the saying goes: use it or lose it!

Important: Even woman with only a marginally weak pelvic floor will
lose urine when training on a steel sprung, hard trampoline, whatever
its size may be. Only on the very flexibly sprung bellicon® trampoline
will they not experience this unpleasant urine loss. Through continuous
practice, the pelvic floor’s retaining ability can be considerably
improved.

In my physiotherapy practice, the emphasis is on pelvic floor
training, which I recommend to men and woman as a prevention measure.
Both sexes will suffer from the ageing process and function loss of the
urine tract, there are also problems after operations and in woman who
experience long term effects after a difficult birth when they don’t
properly train their pelvic floor muscles afterwards. The disorders vary
from chronic pelvic pain to incontinence, the inability to empty their
bladder in the right place and at the right time, which occurs
frequently in the over fifties.

THE PELVIC FLOOR FULFILLS THE FOLLOWING TASKS IN OUR BODY:

to close our urethra, anal, and in woman vaginal passages, and to release when requested,

to act like a belt in keeping the above lying organs in the stomach and pelvic area in place,

the very important function of cushioning – one speaks of the pelvic
floors’ trampoline function. With every pressure from above, it should
be able to move downwards to evade it and then immediately bounce back
again like a trampoline.

To be able to fulfill its tasks properly, the pelvic floor
shouldn’t be floppy or rigid as both can cause problems that can lead to
bladder or intestinal incontinence.

THE USE OF BELLICON® FOR FUNCTIONAL PELVIC FLOOR TRAINING:

Stage 1After
giving birth, the pelvic floor must find its previous tension and
elasticity again. Not all women manage to just bounce back to their old
self again after giving birth. By gently swinging on the bellicon®
trampoline however, this can be achieved quite quickly.

As soon as a woman feels, after the birth, that her pelvic floor has
enough stability, she can gently start swinging on the trampoline –
accompanied by the right music makes it even easier!

My experience, much applied, has shown that existing tension in the
shoulder-neck region disappears; that the blood supply to our tissue and
pelvic floor is much improved and that thus the muscles react better.

Stage 2If that goes well – and that point can differ per person –
the exercise is increased. I find that the cross-over exercises for the
legs are very popular: front – back, right – left, then change, and
also change the leading leg!Then we include the arms: crossways, that
means the right arm and the left leg move forward simultaneously.In
between do the slow walk 10x, whereby the arm and leg from the same side
move forward simultaneously etc.; then back to crossway exercises
again.For me, crossways can also mean moving the elbow and knee towards
each other. I like to use really lively (rock) music!!This way, our
pelvic floor muscles are encouraged to work and our brain is working
too. A large part of our pelvic floor tissue, including our bladder, is
looked after by our autonomous nervous system (N. Sympathetic and N.
Parasympathetic) which reacts to joy, but also to aggravation and
stress. bellicon® trampoline bouncing should only bring joy.If the
intensity is still too much (= stress), then it could lead to a loss of
urine. That’s a clear sign to return to stage 1, and to try again at a
later stage!!!

Stage 3If the exercises in stage 2 have been
successfully completed, then we start working full power on the stomach
muscles, whereby the pelvic floor muscles also participate. My favorite
exercise is the twister on the Medi-Swing trampoline, preferably with
the corresponding twist music! Start bouncing gently with the feet
together. When bouncing up, turn the slightly bent knee and hips to the
left and at the same time swing both arms to the right. The back remains
straight. Then twist the other way. The front foot thereby always
remains on the jumping mat, the heels are raised."